Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Experience with WD Scorpio Blue 500gb?

Very nice 5400rpm drive. Used it in my previous MBP, was much faster than the 7200rpm hitachi drive the machine originally shipped with.
 
Installed last week. Quiet (except for occasional parking sound). Temperature noticeably lower than with previous WD 320GB/5400rpm drive. Supposed to have 20-30% better power consumption than the previous drive. Recommended.

Results 49.04
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.5.6 (9G55)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro4,1
Drive Type WDC WD5000BEVT-11ZAT0
Disk Test 49.04
Sequential 70.78
Uncached Write 74.26 45.60 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 109.60 62.01 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 38.10 11.15 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 130.29 65.48 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 37.52
Uncached Write 15.21 1.61 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 69.18 22.15 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 59.94 0.42 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 102.76 19.07 MB/sec [256K blocks]
 
I have one in an external OWC quad interface case. It is quiet and speedy. I have had mine for about 2 months and used it mainly for holding video segments for editing. When used via FW800 on my early 2008 2.5Ghz 17" MBP, it seems to be just as fast as the internal drive.
 
Great Drive

Ordered it from new egg approx 90 days ago. Runs very quiet. I would say slightly less noisy than the stock drive in my MBP 2.2ghz. Don't notice any significant change in battery life.

I would recommend to anyone willing to go through the installation process.

Newegg also was speedy with delivery as always.
 
I have had this drive installed in my 15" unibody MBP since the day it was released. Love the drive.. it's quiet, fast, and makes almost no noticeable vibration. I would label it the best 5400rpm 500gb 2.5" drive out there.. of course, thats just my opinion :)
 
I still have the stock hard drive, but I'm thinking of upgrading and this one seems exactly like what I'm looking for. I just have a question, something that I didn't think of until reading this thread, how does installing a new hard drive mess with the sudden motion sensor?
What should I look for/avoid?

Thanks
 
Thunder82 said:
I have had this drive installed in my 15" unibody MBP since the day it was released. Love the drive.. it's quiet, fast, and makes almost no noticeable vibration. I would label it the best 5400rpm 500gb 2.5" drive out there.. of course, thats just my opinion :)
Click to expand...

Exactly the same as my experience. Recommended. I considered holding out for the 7200s but I want to get one that lots of people can recommend after a few months of use, rather than buy the first few that have come to market.
 
wesrk said:
I still have the stock hard drive, but I'm thinking of upgrading and this one seems exactly like what I'm looking for. I just have a question, something that I didn't think of until reading this thread, how does installing a new hard drive mess with the sudden motion sensor?
What should I look for/avoid?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Installing a new hard drive will only mess with the sudden motion sensor if the new hard drive also has an SMS or a freefall sensor. If both the system and the hard drive have one then they conflict and all hell breaks loose.

To avoid this make sure you buy a new hard drive that does not have a free fall sensor. For example the Western Digital Scorpio Blue hard drive does not have a free fall sensor but the Western Digital Scorpio Black comes in two flavours, one with the free fall sensor and one without.

The best thing to do is check the specs on the manufacturers website to make sure.
 
I just installed one over the weekend into my MacBook Pro. One thing I noticed last night as I was typing up an essay, was that there was a weird sound coming out of my MacBook. I first thought that I have the fan on, but it was at 2000RPM. I then put my ear to where the HDD is, and I could hear it spinning, as if the fans were on at 3500RPM or so. Otherwise everything is great. Fairly faster than the stock 250GB I had, battery life seems to be the same and heat I think is even lower than before. Highly recommended.
 
recon731 said:
I just installed that drive in my Unibody Macbook Pro 15" yesterday. It has been running flawlessly.

On WD's website, it does not mention that it has its own free fall sensor. The drives that do have it, mention it. http://www.westerndigital.com/En/products/products.asp?driveid=506
Since it does not have its own sensor, it should play nicely with SMS on Macs.
Click to expand...

Or do they all have it? From the link you provided:

"Reliable and rugged - WD's ShockGuard™ technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. "

Anyone know?

EDIT: so looking at the description for the scorpio black lets me know that the blue do NOT in fact have a free fall sensor. But isn't the "shockguard" also an issue since it's a motion sensor? All the blues have this.
 
Jottle said:
Or do they all have it? From the link you provided:

"Reliable and rugged - WD's ShockGuard™ technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. "

Anyone know?

EDIT: so looking at the description for the scorpio black lets me know that the blue do NOT in fact have a free fall sensor. But isn't the "shockguard" also an issue since it's a motion sensor? All the blues have this.
Click to expand...

I would guess that ShockGuard is referring more to the build of the HDD than to some sensor.
 
I have one in my MBP. It works well enough. A lot faster than the stock drive.
 
I have the Scorpio Blue 500GB currently installed in my 17" MacBook Pro.

It is A LOT better then the 320GB 7200RPM Seagate Momentus 7200.3 drive that came with the system. Now, I don't have random clicking and lags for no apparent reason.
 
Scorpio Blue 500GB here, no problems at all. Some drive fan noise, no louder than I've encountered with any third-party drive (but louder than the stock drives that come with the Apple notebooks). Spinning noise... none at all. Fast enough. Seems very reliable. Recommended.
 
NewEgg sent me an ad offering 10% off the $99 price for the 500GB blue, so a pulled the trigger and bought another one. This time, I will put the drive into the MBP instead of using an external drive enclosure. ... $89 + free shipping ... a good deal.
 
+1 to all the recommendations. I have installed that drive on three relatives' macs (2 macbooks, one macbook pro) and all are working great.
 
gwerhart0800 said:
NewEgg sent me an ad offering 10% off the $99 price for the 500GB blue, so a pulled the trigger and bought another one. This time, I will put the drive into the MBP instead of using an external drive enclosure. ... $89 + free shipping ... a good deal.
Click to expand...


Thanks for letting us know about this coupon. I checked my email and I had one too. I had been waiting for the Seagate 7200 drive that seems to be out of stock everywhere, so I decided to go ahead and get the WD drive. I took advantage of the "Combo" deal at the bottom of the page so I got the drive and an external enclosure for $89 total.
 
I had installed the Seagate 500GB 7200RPM in my Macbook Pro Unibody. I thought I had solved the vibration issue, with some rubber padding, but it still had periods of vibration. I bought this WDC WD5000BEVT-11ZAT0 and love it. Silent, vibration free and fast! I put the Seagate into an external enclosure for backup, but I feel this WD drive is excellent. I paid about $109.00 with tax from Fry's Electronics in California.
 
Hi, how does this compare to the Seagate 7200rpm 500giger in terms of speed? I'm deciding between the two.

Is the Scorpio Blue somewhere between the Seagate and stock? Anyone done tests?

Regards
 
sm0 said:
Hi, how does this compare to the Seagate 7200rpm 500giger in terms of speed? I'm deciding between the two.

Is the Scorpio Blue somewhere between the Seagate and stock? Anyone done tests?

Regards
Click to expand...

You might want to read this test/review. I almost went for the Scorpio Blue 320g at Newegg for $69, and was mulling the Scorpio Black 7200rpm version, but was still able to get the 10% discount on the WD Scorpio Blue 500g ($89) by ordering it yesterday before midnight, so now I've got one on the way. In the end, the extra space, and really decent performance for a 5400 rpm drive helped me choose. Also, the offer of the external housing for free in the combo offer was a bonus. I'll probably break the drive in for a week or so externally to see how it performs before making the formal switch, but it looks like it might just be a good drive.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back